Take precautions when letting kids help with the holiday cooking

The Thanksgiving and Christmas season is a time to bring the kids into the kitchen to share family traditions and recipes with the next generation.

But nothing can ruin a holiday dinner quite like a trip to the emergency room with an injured child.

That’s the word from Safe Kids Kansas this holiday season. By all means, teach the kids to cook those holiday dinners, but do it in a safe manner so they don’t end up with the wrong set of memories.

Cooking with kids requires a heightened sense of vigilance by parents to prevent burns, cuts, falls and other injuries that can happen when children are involved in cooking and baking, said Sherie Sage, state coordinator for Safe Kids, a nonprofit group that works closely with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to prevent accidental injuries to children.

Most holiday kitchen accidents happen because of inattention, Sage said. A harried parent, preparing a complicated meal, forgets to watch a child, who can pull a pot of boiling liquid off a stove, reach into a hot oven or get cut with a sharp knife left unattended. A cook carrying a heavy pan of hot food can turn around and trip over a child.

Child injuries tend to spike when kids are not in school, said Lynette Spencer, a nurse and the burn program coordinator at Via Christi Regional Burn Center.

She said she has seen children burned over as much as 20 percent of their bodies after pulling pans off the stove and that water scalding is bad, but grease burns can be even worse.

Another danger: A child opens the oven door and stands on it, tipping over an unsecured kitchen range, which can cause several kinds of traumatic injuries, she said.

And some of the worst burn injuries come from two appliances that seem fairly benign: the slow cooker and the microwave.

For example, if the cord on a slow cooker hangs over the edge of the countertop, it’s easy for a child to grab it and pull the appliance, getting splashed with scalding food. For bigger kids, taking food out of the microwave can result in spill burns.

“It’s probably kind of convenient for you to get things in and out of it, but think of a small child, even a 7- or 8-year-old,” Sage said. “It’s over their head.”

Sage’s advice: Know your children.

“Don’t give them knives or let them handle anything hot until you know they have the maturity and coordination to do it safely,” Sage said. “Some children mature faster than others, so it’s up to parents to use good judgment about each child’s capabilities.”

Young children should be restricted to kitchen duties that don’t involve heat, electric appliances or sharp objects, Sage said.

Some examples of child-friendly kitchen tasks include tearing lettuce for salad, washing fruits and vegetables in cold water, measuring flour and sugar, stirring batter in a bowl and using cookie cutters.

But even with those, there’s a potential hazard: Watch out for the baking extracts, such as vanilla or other flavorings.

“Many of those extracts have a very high alcohol content,” Sage said. “They smell great and taste sweet, but they’re toxic to kids.”

According to Sage, parental distraction is the main enemy of children when complicated meals are being made.

She suggested that a second adult or a teenager can help supervise the young ones, allowing the primary cook to concentrate on handling the hot food.

“It’s a great way to pull other family members in,” she said. “They can be at the table cutting out those cookies while you’re making the gravy.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2014 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Take precautions when letting kids help with the holiday cooking."